One of the hardest parts of preparing for any entrance exam is right at the beginning – paying for study materials. Today, commercial prep courses cost more than ever. For some professional exams, like the CPA exam and PE exam, prep courses can cost north of $3,000.

For many students living on shoestring budget, this simply isn’t feasible. They can’t afford prep courses that cost thousands of dollars (or perhaps even hundreds of dollars). So today, we’re going to explore a few options for prepping on the cheap.

Look For Discounts

My first tip before completely writing of commercial prep courses is to look for discounts. Oftentimes, especially around major holidays, prep companies will run steep discounts. This can occasionally bring the price of otherwise outrageously priced courses into the “doable” range.

For example, Princeton Review frequently runs major sales around holidays that can lower the cost of a course by 50% or more. For basic self-paced courses, this can drop the price into the low hundreds of dollars, making them affordable for some.

University Classes

A go-to resource for students not wanting to drop any money is university classes. Oftentimes, universities will provide direct, in-person classes for their own students. Universities want to encourage students to attend graduate school (especially if they will stay at their college and keep paying tuition fees), so they offer free classes.

These classes often cover the biggest entrance exams for graduate school, such as the GRE, GMAT, MCAT and LSAT. Classes are typically held on campus, taught by a tutor, and last anywhere from 2 to 12 weeks.

These classes provide access to free practice exams, direct instruction and, generally, used books. Though the coverage of material usually isn’t as thorough as a commercial course, these university classes can nonetheless be highly effective.

Khan Academy

Another trusted favorite for free study materials is Khan Academy. A 501(C)(3) non-profit organization established years ago, Khan provides tons of free resources for students. This includes written study notes, video lessons, practice questions, and more. Though generally not as robust as a prep course, the Khan study materials can be an awesome supplemental resource.

The video lectures are generally very high-quality and go into great detail. Moreover, the written study notes provide in-depth instruction and analysis, assuming you are a text-based type of learner.

YouTube & Reddit

Another resource worth exploring is YouTube and Reddit. No matter what exam you are preparing for, you can generally find hundreds of free videos on YouTube providing study tips and tools. The only issue with YouTube is that different channel creators provide different approaches to prepping and solving exam problems.

Some content creators view prep differently, and consequently, provide different prep approaches. This can be frustrating.

Likewise Reddit can also be a hotbed of free study material. Generous Reddit users, once done with their own exam, are usually kind enough to share their cheat sheets, outlines and notes. If you can find a good cheat sheet on Reddit, it can be worth its weight in gold. The only issue once again is synthesizing disparate information into a usable form.

Conclusion

There is no doubt that using a comprehensive prep course is the optimal approach to exam prep. Their materials are generally better organized and deeper. However, there are tons of free, solid resources online today. Between Reddit, YouTube, Khan Academy and university classes, you very well may be able to cobble together an effective study plan and bundle of study tools. Best of luck!